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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
'Hop ! hop ! hop ! ' said the doctor , putting the cane betwixt his legs , he is off again ; he is prancing away . ' ' The catastrophe ! the catastrophe ! ' bawled the chapelmaster .
€ doubtless recollect , chapel-master , the last time that Clara sang before she lost her voice . I dare say you remember that it was Easter Sunday , and that you conducted that day the beautiful mass of Haydn in F major . Clara sang the solos in fine voice . You know I was amongst the tenors . At the moment when the " Sanctus" was commencing , I heard a slight movement
behind me ; and , turning round , perceived , to my great astonishment , that Clara had left her place and was endeavouring to pass between the singers and the instrumentalists . cf Are you going ? " said I . — " I must go / * she answered ; " I have to sing at
another church , and I want to go home to practise some duets , for we are invited to a party this evening ; will you accompany us ? we shall have some chorusses from the Messiah and the finale to the first act of Figaro . " ' As we spoke , the majestic harmony of the " Sanctus * burst forth , and the incense ascended in clouds to the cupola . " Don't you
know / ' said I , that to leave church during the '' Sanctus" is a sin which never remains long unpunished ?"
' I was jesting , and I don ' t know how it was that my words took a solemn tone . Clara turned pale and left the church . From that moment she lost her voice . ' The doctor rested his chin upon his cane , but spoke not a syllable . ' How very odd P exclaimed the chapel-master .
' I thought no more , continued the dialogist , of what I had said to Clara , until I heard the doctor speaking of her illness ; and now a tale , which I read many years ago , in an old book , suddenly strikes me ; I will , if you please , relate it . ' ' Do relate it / said the chapel-master ; ' perhaps it will give me some idea on which to found a good comic ' opera . '
c My dear chapel-master / said the doctor , if you can set to music dreams , presentiments , and magnetic ecstasies , it is all very well ; for doubtless his tale treats on those subjects . ' The enthusiast answered not the doctor , but settling himself comfortably in his arm-chair , commenced , in a grave voice , thus : — ' The tents of Isabella and Ferdinand of Arragon stretched ,
almost numberless , before the walls of Granada —' ' In the name of Scheherazade ! ' exclaimed the doctor , ' here begins a story likely to last a blue moon ; and I am stopping here whilst my patients are lamenting . Gentlemen , your most obedient . ' The doctor went out ; but the chapel-master remained quietly sitting , and said , From your opening movement , I should ex-
Untitled Article
84 The Sanctus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/4/
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